The Black Sea MoU has published its Annual Report on Port State Control in the Black Sea region, covering the period between 1st January and 31st December 2022.
Over the course of the 2022 calendar year, 4,972 inspections, involving 3,501 individual ships, were carried out on ships registered by 77 Flag Administrations in the Black Sea Region. The war in Ukraine has heavily affected shipping in the Black Sea Region, including Ukrainian ports. In early 2022, before the onset of the war on 24 February, the number of inspections (958) returned to the pre-Covid and was slightly more than the total number of inspections in this period of 2019 (848).
After the onset of the war, from 24 February to 22 July, the number of inspections of Ukraine immediately dropped 84.6 per cent as compared with the same period of the previous year, from 1,006 to 157, while the regional number of inspections also dropped nearly 30.0 per cent from 2,422 to 1,697.
Out of 4,972 inspections in 2022, 2,981 of the inspections were found with deficiencies. The percentage of the inspection with deficiencies in 2022 (59.96%) increased by 6.56% compared with 2022 (53.40%).
In 2022, the number of ships detained as a result of deficiency(ies) clearly hazardous to safety, health or environment amounted to 174. These detained vessels were registered by 33 different Flag Administrations. The overall detention percentage in the region (Detentions as per cent of inspections) was 3.17 in 2021; in 2022, it slightly increased to 3.50. Since several individual ships were inspected and detained more than once during any one year, the regional detention rate (Individual ships detained as per cent of individual ships inspected) in 2022 was 4.63 and it is higher than the detention percentage. The regional detention rate in 2022 was also higher than the 2021 detention rate of 3.88.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, the number of individual ships which visited the ports of the region during the year showing in the above table and the table of Inspection data by Authority is estimated. Credit: Black Sea MoU
Inspection Data by Flag
In 2022, 4,972 inspections were carried out on ships registered under 77 flags. The flag State with the largest number of ships inspected in the region was Panama with 868 inspections (17.46%) followed by Liberia with 647 (13.01%), Marshall Islands with 516 (10.38%), and Malta with 470 (9,45%) which constitute 2,501 (50.30%) of the total inspections.
In 2022, ships registered under 33 foreign flags were observed to have deficiencies sufficiently serious to impair the seaworthiness and warrant detention. A high detention percentage was observed for Cameroon (12.50%), followed by Ukraine (10.53%) flagged vessels.
Inspection Data by Ship Type
When considering the breakdown of ships inspected by ship type, the largest group of the ship inspected during 2022 were general cargo/multipurpose with 1,887 (37.95%) inspections, bulk carrier 1,660 (33.39%) and oil tanker/chemical tanker 575 (11.56%), which represent 82.90 per cent of inspections.
Inspection Data by Deficiency
A total of 16,100 deficiencies were recorded during the port State control inspections in 2022. The majority of the deficiencies found upon inspection in 2022 were related to safety of navigation 2,391 (14.9%), health protection, medical care, social security 1,925 (12.0%), life saving appliances 1,849 (11.5%), fire safety 1,397 (8.7%) and documents 1,108 (6.9%). These five categories make up 54.0% of the total deficiencies found in 2022.
The number of ISM related deficiencies was 336 which accounted for 2.09 per cent of the deficiencies, while ISM related detainable deficiencies were 58 and 6.88% of the detainable deficiencies. A total of 557 MARPOL related deficiencies were observed in 2022, accounting for 3.46 per cent of the total deficiencies.
843 detainable deficiencies and 56 RO related detainable deficiencies were recorded during the port State control inspections in 2022. During 2022, 5.24 per cent of total deficiencies were recorded as detainable deficiencies, and 6.64 per cent of these detainable deficiencies were RO related.
The majority of the detainable deficiencies found upon inspections in 2022 were related to safety of navigation 164 (19.5%), fire safety 106 (12.6%), emergency systems 98 (11.6%), life saving appliances 75 (8.9%) and ISM 58 (6.9%). These five categories make up 59.4% of the total detainable deficiencies found in 2022.
The majority of the RO related detainable deficiencies found upon inspection in 2022 were related to safety of navigation 12 (21.4%), fire safety 8 (14.3%), Water/Weathertight conditions 8 (14.3%), life saving appliances 6 (10.7%) and emergency systems 6 (7.1%).
Download the report: Black Sea MoU Port State Control 2022
